At the end of the day

Nevada primary recap -- Clinton 51%, Obama 45%, Edwards 4%. For the GOP, Mitt 51%, Paul 14%, McCain 13%, Huck and Fred tied at 8%, Rudy 4%. CNN "[T]wo out of three Nevadans who caucused chose a Democrat instead of a Republican for president." NVDems

GOP primary in SC -- McCain 33%, Huck 30%, Fred 16%, Mitt 15%, Paul 4%, Rudy 2%. The Democratic SC primary is Jan. 26. CNN

UPDATED analysis of both primaries without M$M spin from Blue Girl and Pale Rider.

In the end, GOP-wise, it's how many delegates that Mitt can get. Well said, Matt Yglesias (h/t Atrios). Same is true on the Democratic side.

Don't let elections interfere with holding Cheney to account. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) accepts no excuses. ITMFA!

Isn't bipartisanship overrated? Kevin Drum questioned it. Blue Girl likened bipartisanship with aWol to Democrats getting date raped. Gadfly called it simply bullshit and for good reasons.

More Plame -- A missing email "uber-timeline" from Emptywheel.

Violence exploded in Iraq: Trouble with Moqtada al Sadr... Iraq's national security advisor was taken hostage but later released. Police stormed a "booby-trapped mosque on the outskirts of Nasiriyah the day after its members attacked police in Nasiriyah, killing more than 100 people and injuring more than 200 in the two cities" when including Basra attacks. Suicide bombers hit police in Ramadi, killed 6, injured 13. In Tal Afar, a rocket killed 7. The "worst violence in months in Basra." McClatchy

SCOTUS yesterday: Slackers! "Last term, the Court heard argument[s] in 71 cases, the lowest total in the Court’s modern history." The current caseload so far, 70, subject to change. In-depth on types of cases, "Circuit Scorecard" at the linkie.

In other news -- The SCOTUS will hear two job discrimination cases -- "One case concerns protection for employees against retaliation for reporting the discriminatory actions of a supervisor. The other involves age discrimination suits when the employer says that it took an action like laying off a worker for legitimate reasons not related to age." NYT

Look who's whining -- Tom DeLay: "If McCain gets the nomination, I don't know what I'll do. I might have to sit this one out." Someone call the bug thug a waaahbulance! Tim Grieve from yesterday.

Krugman called out McCain's tax-talking dipshittery, the media's la-dee-dah attitude, and the Bush "tax family" con. Plus a smackdown of Bush economic policy. George must be a Chicago fan: Da bears win.

Intel Dump advised retired Gen. Tommy Franks what he could do with the $100,000 he received from a veterans charity scam.

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

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Republican Law and Disorder

In the House of Representatives, the people are represented by two separate and fundamentally different parties. The Democrats -- with a New Direction for America --and the Republicans -- whose business is corruption.

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As the Abramoff Cookie Crumbles, So Does Feeney

Tom Feeney, waiting to be unveiled as the corrupt Delay crony, has finally gotten some decent attention for his dealings with Jack Abramoff.

As you may recall, Feeney was on the famous Scotland golf trip that cost Abramoff a cool $160,000. Just as the Dems took control of Congress, he agreed to pay back his $5,640 portion of the trip. He said he didn't know that Abramoff had paid for it.

Now, the FBI has requested information from reporters at both the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel. A Sentinel columnist, Scott Maxwell, shared this in his blog today:

It's not every day the FBI comes asking for my notes and records. But an agent did so just last week -- wanting whatever I could give him about Tom Feeney and Jack Abramoff. He wanted e-mail, maybe notes as well, from as far back as two years ago.

You might want to read the whole thing as it has a pretty good run-down of how Feeney's then Chief of Staff, Jason Roe, handled it. Of course, he apologized to the lobbyist, not to the constituents.

Tom Feeney was a Delay man. When Delay went down and his ARMPAC money was returned by many Republican recipients, Feeney, a $10,000 man, held on to his. Maybe he knew he'd need it for legal fees.

But I wonder if this story doesn't have a US Attorney angle tied to it. Earlier, I posted on Senator Nelson's request for information on why Paul Perez, the US Attorney for the Middle District of Florida - Feeney's district, had resigned in March 2007.

The angle had to do with a letter that several of the purged attorneys had signed and Perez was among them. But the timing, especially now, makes me wonder if the US Attorney scandal hasn't claimed another. Here's what Perez had to say about his leaving:

As U.S. Attorney, “you serve at the pleasure of the President, but you know you don’t get appointed for life,” Perez told the Tampa Tribune. “I wanted to make sure I left on my own terms.” Perez is taking a job as chief compliance officer at Fidelity National Financial, a big publicly traded insurance outfit based in Jacksonville.

My emphasis added. Does it sound like Perez thought he was on the block? Did his office have anything going on Feeney/Abramoff at the time? By the way - compliance officer???

I don't know if something is here, but we have another US District with a corruption inquiry where the US Attorney in charge of the District resigned. It smells.

UPDATE: I called the US Attorney's Office in Orlando to ask if they were a part of the investigation into Feeney or whether the FBI was initiating it on its own. They indicated that it could be either but that it would be inappropriate to comment. But, they did want to know whether I had any relevant paperwork or information.

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